Graham Collier

Relook: A Memorial 75th Birthday Celebration
Jazz Continuum No #

During an historic career in composed and improvised music that lasted more than 55 years, British bassist/educator Graham Collier (1937-2011) was familiar with, and arguably mastered, every type of jazz as a player and writer. Yet, as demonstrated by the 20 selections of this career retrospective, organized by Collier himself before his unexpected death, his greatest achievements were in the realm of modern, straight-ahead big band Jazz

As the tracks recorded from 1963 to 2004 on this two-CD set illustrate, Collier’s skill was second to none. But qualifiers have to be added about modern, straight-ahead big band Jazz. That`s because the ever-changing, non-atonal music which Collier dedicated his professional life to was increasing being compromised by Jazz’s neo-cons, whose rightful rejection of fads such as fusion and hip-hop, also led to a codification of what they consider “real Jazz”. The bassist’s writings in books and articles strongly argued against these retrogressive blinders and listeners will surely note how his own musical work put a lie to narrow classifications.

Tynemouth-born Collier, who won a down beat scholarship to become the first British graduate of Boston’s Berklee School of Music and in1967, and was awarded the first-ever commission for Jazz from the Arts Council of Great Britain, early on was experimenting with building block arrangements and subtle counterpoint, as a rare Berklee-recorded track here shows. But more important to his future growth were sextet pieces such as “Down Another Road” and “Aberdeen Angus” which allowed a melding of Swing era lilts with churning Rock-styled rhythms without the results sounding sonically schizophrenic. Although there may be a bit of (self) mockery in the pieces which at points have harmonies which lean awfully close to those later used in the Austin Powers soundtrack, the composer has sufficient help fleshing out his concepts from three players who would be his stalwarts for many years to come: trumpeter and flugelhornist Harry Beckett, saxophonist Stan Sulzmann and drummer John Marshall. The last is inventively percussive without being self-indulgent; the reedist at this juncture exhibits a lighter variant on John Coltrane’s style; while Beckett, a veteran even then, offers up sharp-tongued and triplet-laden grace notes, which complement his romanticism in other settings.

“Workpoints”, which resulted for the Arts Council commission is arguably the most notable of pieces on what the set describes as “The Early Collier”. Incredibly enough the highly polished 34½-minute reading it gets here is actually an alternate version not previously released. A low tone man, likely related to his double bass skills, the composer’s exposition contrasts perpendicular vibe echoes and drum drags with a snorting bass ostinato and an overlay of staccato reed tones that open up for narrowed double tonguing from Sulzmann. As the quivering textures move upwards and downwards in pitch and volume, more parallels exist including saxophone call-and-response paired with bongo resonation; plus crying brass and writhing reed bites and slurs from Karl Jenkins’ oboe. Beckett’s flugelhorn textures in many capillary guises drive the middle section, with stop-tongued blurts at the top and the subsequent sequence introduced with notes in the brass instrument’s its highest pitches. Along the way his smooth textures are contrasted with whinnying from the other horns; are part of a two flugelhorn episode of mimicking and melding tones with Kenny Wheeler; and balance the narrative alongside intersecting brass and reed lines in canon-form. Although the swing is rubato, the continuum is paced by Collier’s bass, the percussionists and Jenkins piano comping. Finally – this is early Collier after all – a climax is reached with Mingusian slurs and shudders as well as brass work that evidentially relates to Maynard Ferguson excess. Latterly, a chiming vibe solo by Frank Ricotti maintains the theme’s individuality.

Built around counterpoint between Beckett’s mellow and flighty brass work and the laconic, metallic sound of Ed Speight’s guitar, “Adam” from 1975 is another Collier milestone. This intermezzo was one of the first he composed after being inspired by fine art, in this case the paintings of Barnett Newman, a preoccupation that would last until the end.

Represented by 11 selections from 1976 to 2004, the mature Collier’s composing on disc 2 appears to have paradoxically internalized some of the spaciousness of so-called New music as well as – through some sidemen allusions – heavier Rock, while reconfirming his Jazz roots. Tellingly “Symphony of Scorpions Part 2”, one section of a longer work influenced by the writings of Malcolm Lowry, is characterized by the tension engendered by low-frequency intermingling of piano coloration from Roger Dean, Webb’s, drum flanges and guitar distortions from Speight. The sequence’s momentum is expressed best in soprano saxophonist Art Themen’s pinched line which concludes with upturned vibrations.

At the same time, the extract from “The Hackney Five” from 1994 and 2001’s “Oxford Palms Open Blues and Ballad Two.” present other examples of Collier’s varied mature style. The former connects drum nerve beats, an electric bass intro and some whinnying alto saxophone lines into an undercurrent that leisurely evolves over vamps from the different sections. Meanwhile trombonist High Fraser outputs a chunky, booming solo that is both curvaceous and chromatic. Evoking William Faulkner’s books and location, “Oxford Palms” allows space for various solos to appear from within the gradually accelerating tutti cadenzas. With a modular drum beat, clinking piano runs and marimba chimes, baritone saxophone slurs and yearning alto sax lines make the greatest impression.

Finally there’s what could be termed Collier’s magnum opus, “Hoarded Dreams Part Two: Five Trumpets and a Baritone”. Recorded in 1981 with an all-star cast of British, Continental and North American improvisers, it’s subtitle alone appears both to refer to Ellington’s “Concerto for Cootie” and go him five better in the brass department. Helped along by guitarist John Schröder’s chording and cascading lines from Dean’s piano, as well as some fluttering alto flute from Geoff Warren, the slurs, blasts and brays of the sequential trumpet or flugelhorn solos shift among Ted Curson, Henry Lowther, Manfred Schoof, Tomasz Stańko and Wheeler. Individually expressed, the solos are alternately refined and rasping, revealing capillary cries and harmonies, while the rest of the band vibrates chromatically.

Throughout his life, a good portion of it spent in Jazz education, Collier was enough outside of the fashionable mainstream and away from the American Jazz power centres to have his compositions greeted with accolades that should be have his due. Hopefully this incomparable set of music will redress some of those slights and reveal what ever-evolving improvised music has lost with his demise.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Relook: Disc 1- Down Another Road- the Early Collier: 1. Down Another Road 2. The [Berklee] Barley Mow 3. Crumblin’ Cookie 4. An Alternate Workpoints 5. Song Three Live 6. Mosaics 7. The Alternate Mosaics 8. Adam 9. Aberdeen Angus /// Disc 2- New Conditions - the Mature Collier: 1. New Conditions 2. Forest Path to the Spring 3. Symphony of Scorpions Part 2 4. The Day of the Dead 5. Hoarded Dreams Part Two: Five Trumpets and a Baritone 6. One By One the Cow Goes By Part Two. 7. The Hackney Five Extract 8.The Third Colour Groove 2 9. Oxford Palms Open Blues and Ballad Two 10. The Vonetta Factor 11. An Alternate Aberdeen Angus

Personnel: Relook: Disc 1: 1. Harry Beckett (flugelhorn); Nick Evans (trombone); Stan Sulzmann (alto and tenor saxophones); Karl Jenkins (oboe and piano); Graham Collier (bass) and John Marshall (drums) 2. Dusko Gojkovic (trumpet); Mike Gibbs (trombone); Richard Iannitelli (alto saxophone); Sadao Watanabe (flute); Mike Nock (piano); Gary Burton + 36-piece student big band 3. Beckett; Gibbs; Dave Aaron (alto saxophone and flute); Jenkins; Philip Lee (guitar); Collier and Marshall 4. Beckett; Kenny Wheeler and Henry Lowther (flugelhorn and trumpet); Gibbs, Chris Smith (trombone); John Mumford (trombone and cowbell); Sulzmann; Aaron (soprano, alto and tenor saxophone and flute); John Surman (baritone and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet and piano); Jenkins (baritone and soprano saxophones, oboe, piano); Collier; Marshall and Frank Ricotti (bongos and vibes) 5. Beckett; Derek Wadsworth (trombone); Bob Sydor and Alan Wakeman (soprano and tenor saxophones); John Taylor (piano); Collier and John Webb (drums) 6. Beckett; Sydor; Wakeman; Geoff Castle (piano); Collier and Webb 7. Same as #6 8. Beckett; Wadsworth; Roger Dean (piano); Ed Speight (guitar); Collier and Webb 9. Same as #1 //// Disc 2: 1. Beckett; Lowther and Pete Duncan (trumpet); Malcolm Griffiths (trombone); Wakeman (soprano saxophone); Mike Page (alto, soprano and tenor saxophones); Art Themen (soprano and tenor saxophones); Dean; Speight; Collier and Webb and John Mitchell (percussion) 2. Themen (soprano and tenor saxophones) and Speight (acoustic guitar) 3. Beckett; Lowther; Duncan;, Griffith; Themen, Page; Tony Roberts (soprano and tenor saxophones); dean, Collier, Webb; Mitchell 4. Beckett; Griffiths; Page, Themen; Wakeman; Dean; Speight; Roy Babbington (bass); Ashley Brown (drums and percussion); John Carbery (narrator) and Collier (conductor) 5. Lowther; Wheeler; Ted Curson (trumpet); Manfred Schoof and Tomasz Stańko (trumpet and flugelhorn); Griffiths; Eje Thelin and Conny Bauer (trombone); Dave Powell (tuba); Juhani Aaltonen (alto and tenor saxophones); Themen; Surman; Geoff Warren (alto flute and alto saxophone); Matthias Schubert (oboe and tenor saxophone); Dean (keyboard and piano); Speight and John Schröder (guitar); Paul Bridge (bass); Ashley Brown (drums and percussion) 5. Gabriel Garrick, Steve Waterman, Patrick White and Sean Griffith (trumpets); Matthew Colman, David Holt, Hugh Fraser (trombones); Bill Mee (bass trombone); Stephen Main (soprano saxophone); James Scannell, Dan Foster and Matt Stewart (alto saxophones); Matthew Morris (baritone saxophone); Christian Vaughan (piano); Peter James (electric piano); Nick Goetzee (guitar); Jon Noyce (bass); Matthew Skelton (drums) and Tom Hooper and John Machin (percussion) 7. Lowther; White; Waterman; Fraser; Mee; Andy Grappy (tuba); Geoff Warren (alto flute and alto saxophone); Chris Biscoe (alto clarinet and baritone saxophone); Themen; Mark Lockheart (soprano and tenor saxophones); Pete Saberton (piano); Ed Speight; Dudley Phillips (bass); John Marshall (drums) and Collier (director) 8. Simon Finch and Steve Waterman (flugelhorn and trumpet); Ed Sarath (fugelhorn); Fraser; Oren Marshall (tuba); Steve Main (alto, soprano and baritone saxophones); Karlheinz Miklin (alto flute, flute, soprano and tenor saxophones); Geoff Warren (alto flute, alto and soprano saxophones); Themen (soprano, tenor and bass saxophones); Dean; Speight; Andy Cleyndert (bass); Marshall and Collier (director) 9. Adrian Kelly (trumpet); Kieran Hurleyand Jeremy Greig (trombone); Matthew Savage (euphonium and trombone); Lindsay Vickery (soprano saxophone); Graeme Blevins (alto saxophone); Lee Buddle (baritone saxophone); Tom O’Halloran and Grant Windsor (piano); Stephanie Dean and Lucy Fischer (violins); Martin Payne (viola); Jenny Tingley (cello); Phil Waldron (bass); Hans Drieberg (drums and percussion); Steve Richter (percussion and marimba) 10. Beckett; Steve Waterman and Alex Bonney (flugelhorn and trumpet); Mark Bassey and Fayyaz Virji (trombones); Gideon Juckes (tuba); Themen; Biscoe; Warren; James Allsopp (bass clarinet and tenor saxophone); Dean; Speight; Jeff Clyne (bass); Trevor Tomkins (drums); Graham Collier (director) 11. Same as #/10

May 21, 2012

Graham Collier

Deep Dark Blue Centre/ Portraits/The Alternate Mosaics
BGO CD 822

Mike Osborne Trio

All Night Long

Ogun OGCD 029

While most of the attention in Britain and overseas in the late 1960s, early 1970s was focused on progressive rock and pop music coming from England, far more notable sounds were being developed outside of the mainstream. Although the most far-reaching of these advances may turn out to be the non-idiomatic improv advanced by the likes of Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, two other strains deserve attention.

One, represented here by Graham Collier’s session for septet and sextets, collected from three different LPs, expressed the depths of the composer-arranger’s art. Its variations on color, texture, space and voicing cemented Collier’s reputation in that tricky hyphenate’s top ranks. All Night Long on the other hand, is a free-for-all blowing session from three musicians who while fellow travellers, were not fundamental believers in Bailey-Parker-styled lower-case pure improv.

Although both discs are officially reissues, each set adds more material to the original LP – roughly 27 minutes to the session led by alto saxophonist Mike Osborne, plus an almost three-quarters-of-an-hour alternate version of one of Collier’s most realized works, Mosaics. Surrounding that program, recorded in 1970, are Deep Dark Blue Centre, a septet session that was Collier’s first LP in 1967, and Portraits a sextet date from 1972 with a completely different band. Although significant efforts, neither matches the grandeur of Mosaics.

Perhaps because two of the players – Collier himself and Rhodesian-born trombonist Mike Gibbs, later a prominent arranger – were graduates of Boston’s Berklee College, the 1967 dates seems to suffer from an overemphasis on textural organization rather than emotional soloing. At points the voicing appears to track backwards from the Berklee-sanctioned work of Evans and George Russell to the airiness associated with 1950s’ bands of similar size such as those led by John Graas, Teddy Charles and Gigi Gryce.

Featuring two future members of The Soft Machine – baritone saxophonist and oboist Karl Jenkins and drummer John Marshall – the writing and soloing too is sometimes too episodic. Jenkins’ oboe is emphasized far more – for novelty’s sake? – and more frequently than similarly so-called exotic instrumentals would be used in later Collier work, while Phil Lee’s sometimes finger-picking, sometimes strumming guitar lines exist in a dated time frame mid-way between Joe Pass and Gabor Szabo.

Most of the assured strength comes from front-line players, all of whom, ironically enough, were foreign-born. The date’s veterans on trumpet and flugelhorn, who each play on half the tracks, are Harry Beckett, originally from Barbados, and Canadian Kenny Wheeler. Dave Aaron, who more than acquits himself on alto saxophone and flute, was born in Singapore.

“Conversations” for instance, depends on antipodal vamping that contrasts Wheeler at his brassiest with Aaron’s slithering trills. Collier and Marshall provide backing that at times pulses like Native Indian rhythms, until the piece reaches a climax when Wheeler’s sweeter tones mix with Aaron’s skittering runs. An episodic minor blues, the title track mixes Gil Evans-like linear chords with down-stroking guitar licks à la Szabo at his most psychedelic, an R&B-like riff from Jenkins’ baritone saxophone, bluesy alto bites from Aaron and cymbal pops from Marshall. Hardening his tone from braying to polished, Wheeler completes the piece with triplet-laden excitement.

Despite its overall title, only flugelhornist Dick Pearce is the subject of a full-fledged salute with “Portraits One” on Portraits. Framed by obbligatos from Ed Speight’s guitar and Geoff Castle’s comping piano, Pearce who has more recently worked in the bigger bands of Ronnie Scott and Stan Tracey acquits himself with only a few dips into the saccharine. Shading his output in many layers, the trumpeter is effectively showcased when the gradually accelerating tempo provides a foundation for his contrapuntal asides, slurs and double-tonguing.

Furthermore, “And Now for Something Completely Different”, parts one and two, which take up another part of the session, relate more to the time in which it was composed and played than most of Collier’s previous and subsequent work. With Blue Note records-styled funk then in vogue, the repeated motif built on ratcheting percussion from John Webb, who also worked in a similar vein with guitarist Ray Russell; and nagging, extended guitar licks from Ed Speight, attempt to replicate this funk sound. Pianist Geoff Castle, who in recent years has worked with arranger Neil Ardley and in Ian Carr’s Nucleus, seems unsure whether he should be Wynton Kelly or Herbie Hancock. His passing chords and hearty tremolo pumping however don’t shout “early 1970s” as much as Webb’s heavy-handed drum solo. Meanwhile Pearce’s half-valve chorus is more NYJO than NYC. Luckily Collier’s arrangement saves the date with tempo shifts from andante to kinetic and direction from his thumping bass runs. Using intervallic layering to delineate parts, Collier often places bubbling flugelhorn lines on top, chirping alto saxophone from Peter Hurt – who has since played with George Russell and Carla Bley – in the middle and high-frequency piano chording at the bottom.

In contrast to the music surrounding it chronologically, 1970’s Mosaics is in many ways Collier’s Kind of Blue. More orchestral than that Miles Davis date, the alternate version of the four themes collected here benefit from a powerful front line, and one might conjecture less pressured Castle and Webb than they were two years later.

Beckett is back again, yet oddly both powerful saxophone soloists are now more involved in other musics than jazz. Bob Sydor, who plays alto and tenor saxophones, was in Maynard Ferguson’s big band as well as the orchestra for Miss Saigon, now teaches saxophone privately. Tenor and soprano saxophones Alan Wakeman, followed brief gigs with Mike Westbrook and the Soft Machine with membership in singer David Essex's band and now concentrates on commercial work, notably in musicals.

That’s a pity, since both men dig into the material here with gusto, double and triple tonguing, and intelligently using altissimo runs, passing tones and slurry glottal punctuation. Webb’s drum work pops and rolls and Castle’s piano lines are similarly high frequency and kinetic.

Except for a final drum solo, “The Alternate Mosaics Part 3, Theme 6”, serves as a perfect showcase for Beckett. Beginning a capella, he shades the brass tube and valves through squeaks, lip pops, wah-wahs, spits and puffs. When the downward rappelling bass line brings in the theme, strengthened by swaying, near-Arabic soprano saxophone lines, Beckett responds with fleet triplet-emphasized growls. As the rhythm section lays on pressured accompaniment he then turns from hand-muted weaving to harsh, staccato lines.

Another stand out, “The Alternate Mosaics Part 2, Theme 2” not only gives space to double-gaited cascading piano chords, but also for stop-and-start tenor saxophone cadences from both reed men. As Collier’s thick bass plucks and Webb’s press rolls push them forward, both Wakeman and Sydor overblow, tongue-stop, chomp phrases, semi-quote and generally vibrate pitches everywhere. The final shout chorus, adding Beckett, is excitement in itself.

One saxophonist who demanded go-for-broke excitement almost constantly, and never seemed to be seduced by commercial considerations, was Osborne (1941-2007). Although sidelined with mental illness for about two decades before his death, prior to that, Osborne showed, in his work with the Brotherhood of Breath (BOB) and his own bands, that he was committed to the sort of improvisation that exhausted all possibilities. All Night Long, recorded with BOB cohorts, Harry Miller on bass and Louis Moholo on drums – both expatriate South Africans – confirms this. Although he favored the alto saxophone, Osborne was, in a way, the link between Tubby Hayes and Evan Parker.

As this 1975 CD demonstrates, those saxophonists are important touchstones. While Osborne was never really a bopper like Hayes, he still cleaved to the song form and studded his solo with fleeting quotes from other tunes, a long-time bop trope. Furthermore every tune on this CD has a real title, and the trio even briefly touches on “Round Midnight”. Conversely, while Osborne’s solos are rugged, seemingly never-ending and studded with rough asides, slip-sliding, roars and unexpected sound excursions, he never deconstructed timbres the way Parker, his sometime BOB section-made did. Whether he would have – like Bailey and a few others – have become more musically experimental as he aged, is of course, a moot question.

What is obvious is the strength of the performance here. Operating at 100 per cent from the first note, the trio mixes gritty, bass string plucks and pummeling arco lines on Miller’s part; cross-patterning drags, flams and rim shots, with add-on miscellaneous percussion excursions on Moholo’s; and resonating, repetitive bites, blows and blats on Osborne’s, to keep playing at top form.

Note how the three treat the almost 24-minute showcase that encompasses “Ken’s Tune/Country Bounce/ All Night Long/Trio Trio”. As Miller’s thick pulses spelunk down the bass strings and Moholo counters with a relentless exposure of rumbles, pops and cymbal echoes, Osborne inventively squeezes, trills and pushes new tones to the centre, only to discard them and start again. Forced and filled vibrating arpeggios and discursive patterns are advanced with flutter-tonguing, tongue-stopping and split tones, slip-sliding from one idea to the next, contrasting a bebop quote with a pseudo-Scottish burr and then moving on. Meantime Miller leaps from sul ponticello accompaniment to set up a groove congruent to the drummer’s cross pulsing and duple meters. As cadenzas of notes spew from his horn it appears as if Osborne will never stop playing no matter what.

Or consider the previously unreleased “Now and Then, Here and Now”. Beholden to the sound extensions brought to jazz by John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, Osborne’s solo still has a melodic base. With some lilting phrases played in the coloratura register and others roughened with a deeper tenor-sax-like pitch, he flies off into the stratosphere, but keeps recapping the original theme to maintain his moorings. Snatches of what could be “Slop” and “Mr. PC” appear fleetingly and then are subsumed into the molten idea flow, the bravura performance includes hocketing leaps from one idea and note cluster to the next. Especially illustrative is that the saxophonist is still soloing as the track fades. This is how Osborne should be remembered.

Born in 1937, Collier is thankfully still alive to be celebrated. And so he should be as with these CDs. Despite their related-to-the-period faults, both his and Osborne’s sets recall the creative ferment in United Kingdom jazz in the late 1960s, early 1970s and preserve hours of notable music that should be savored.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Deep: Deep Dark Blue Centre: 1. Blue Walls 2. El Miklos 3. Hirayoshi Suite 4. Conversations 5. Deep Dark Blue Centre Portraits: 7. And Now for Something Completely Different PT. 1 Disc 2 1. And Now for Something Completely Different PT 2. 2. Portraits 1 The Alternate Mosaics: 3. The Alternate Mosaics Part 1 Theme 1 4. The Alternate Mosaics Part 2 Theme 2 5. The Alternate Mosaics Part 3 Theme 6 6. The Alternate Mosaics Part 4 Theme 8

Personnel: Deep: Deep Dark Blue Centre: Harry Beckett or Kenny Wheeler (trumpet and flugelhorn); Mike Gibbs (trombone); Dave Aaron (alto saxophone and flute); Karl Jenkins (baritone saxophone and oboe); Philip Lee (guitar); Graham Collier (bass) and John Marshall (drums) Portraits: Dick Pearce (flugelhorn); Pete Hurt (alto saxophone); Ed Speight (guitar); Geoff Castle (piano); Collier and John Webb (drums) The Alternate Mosaics: Beckett; Bob Sydor (alto and tenor saxophones); Alan Wakeman (tenor and soprano saxophones); Castle; Collier and Webb

Track Listing: Night: 1. All night long/Rivers 2. Round Midnight 3. Scotch Pearl 4. Waltz 5. Ken’s Tune/Country Bounce/ All Night Long/Trio Trio 6. Scotch Pearl 7. Now and Then, Here and Now

Personnel: Night: Mike Osborne (alto saxophone); Harry Miller (bass) and

Louis Moholo (drums)

December 23, 2008

Mike Osborne Trio

All Night Long
Ogun OGCD 029

Graham Collier

Deep Dark Blue Centre/ Portraits/The Alternate Mosaics

BGO CD 822

While most of the attention in Britain and overseas in the late 1960s, early 1970s was focused on progressive rock and pop music coming from England, far more notable sounds were being developed outside of the mainstream. Although the most far-reaching of these advances may turn out to be the non-idiomatic improv advanced by the likes of Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, two other strains deserve attention.

One, represented here by Graham Collier’s session for septet and sextets, collected from three different LPs, expressed the depths of the composer-arranger’s art. Its variations on color, texture, space and voicing cemented Collier’s reputation in that tricky hyphenate’s top ranks. All Night Long on the other hand, is a free-for-all blowing session from three musicians who while fellow travellers, were not fundamental believers in Bailey-Parker-styled lower-case pure improv.

Although both discs are officially reissues, each set adds more material to the original LP – roughly 27 minutes to the session led by alto saxophonist Mike Osborne, plus an almost three-quarters-of-an-hour alternate version of one of Collier’s most realized works, Mosaics. Surrounding that program, recorded in 1970, are Deep Dark Blue Centre, a septet session that was Collier’s first LP in 1967, and Portraits a sextet date from 1972 with a completely different band. Although significant efforts, neither matches the grandeur of Mosaics.

Perhaps because two of the players – Collier himself and Rhodesian-born trombonist Mike Gibbs, later a prominent arranger – were graduates of Boston’s Berklee College, the 1967 dates seems to suffer from an overemphasis on textural organization rather than emotional soloing. At points the voicing appears to track backwards from the Berklee-sanctioned work of Evans and George Russell to the airiness associated with 1950s’ bands of similar size such as those led by John Graas, Teddy Charles and Gigi Gryce.

Featuring two future members of The Soft Machine – baritone saxophonist and oboist Karl Jenkins and drummer John Marshall – the writing and soloing too is sometimes too episodic. Jenkins’ oboe is emphasized far more – for novelty’s sake? – and more frequently than similarly so-called exotic instrumentals would be used in later Collier work, while Phil Lee’s sometimes finger-picking, sometimes strumming guitar lines exist in a dated time frame mid-way between Joe Pass and Gabor Szabo.

Most of the assured strength comes from front-line players, all of whom, ironically enough, were foreign-born. The date’s veterans on trumpet and flugelhorn, who each play on half the tracks, are Harry Beckett, originally from Barbados, and Canadian Kenny Wheeler. Dave Aaron, who more than acquits himself on alto saxophone and flute, was born in Singapore.

“Conversations” for instance, depends on antipodal vamping that contrasts Wheeler at his brassiest with Aaron’s slithering trills. Collier and Marshall provide backing that at times pulses like Native Indian rhythms, until the piece reaches a climax when Wheeler’s sweeter tones mix with Aaron’s skittering runs. An episodic minor blues, the title track mixes Gil Evans-like linear chords with down-stroking guitar licks à la Szabo at his most psychedelic, an R&B-like riff from Jenkins’ baritone saxophone, bluesy alto bites from Aaron and cymbal pops from Marshall. Hardening his tone from braying to polished, Wheeler completes the piece with triplet-laden excitement.

Despite its overall title, only flugelhornist Dick Pearce is the subject of a full-fledged salute with “Portraits One” on Portraits. Framed by obbligatos from Ed Speight’s guitar and Geoff Castle’s comping piano, Pearce who has more recently worked in the bigger bands of Ronnie Scott and Stan Tracey acquits himself with only a few dips into the saccharine. Shading his output in many layers, the trumpeter is effectively showcased when the gradually accelerating tempo provides a foundation for his contrapuntal asides, slurs and double-tonguing.

Furthermore, “And Now for Something Completely Different”, parts one and two, which take up another part of the session, relate more to the time in which it was composed and played than most of Collier’s previous and subsequent work. With Blue Note records-styled funk then in vogue, the repeated motif built on ratcheting percussion from John Webb, who also worked in a similar vein with guitarist Ray Russell; and nagging, extended guitar licks from Ed Speight, attempt to replicate this funk sound. Pianist Geoff Castle, who in recent years has worked with arranger Neil Ardley and in Ian Carr’s Nucleus, seems unsure whether he should be Wynton Kelly or Herbie Hancock. His passing chords and hearty tremolo pumping however don’t shout “early 1970s” as much as Webb’s heavy-handed drum solo. Meanwhile Pearce’s half-valve chorus is more NYJO than NYC. Luckily Collier’s arrangement saves the date with tempo shifts from andante to kinetic and direction from his thumping bass runs. Using intervallic layering to delineate parts, Collier often places bubbling flugelhorn lines on top, chirping alto saxophone from Peter Hurt – who has since played with George Russell and Carla Bley – in the middle and high-frequency piano chording at the bottom.

In contrast to the music surrounding it chronologically, 1970’s Mosaics is in many ways Collier’s Kind of Blue. More orchestral than that Miles Davis date, the alternate version of the four themes collected here benefit from a powerful front line, and one might conjecture less pressured Castle and Webb than they were two years later.

Beckett is back again, yet oddly both powerful saxophone soloists are now more involved in other musics than jazz. Bob Sydor, who plays alto and tenor saxophones, was in Maynard Ferguson’s big band as well as the orchestra for Miss Saigon, now teaches saxophone privately. Tenor and soprano saxophones Alan Wakeman, followed brief gigs with Mike Westbrook and the Soft Machine with membership in singer David Essex's band and now concentrates on commercial work, notably in musicals.

That’s a pity, since both men dig into the material here with gusto, double and triple tonguing, and intelligently using altissimo runs, passing tones and slurry glottal punctuation. Webb’s drum work pops and rolls and Castle’s piano lines are similarly high frequency and kinetic.

Except for a final drum solo, “The Alternate Mosaics Part 3, Theme 6”, serves as a perfect showcase for Beckett. Beginning a capella, he shades the brass tube and valves through squeaks, lip pops, wah-wahs, spits and puffs. When the downward rappelling bass line brings in the theme, strengthened by swaying, near-Arabic soprano saxophone lines, Beckett responds with fleet triplet-emphasized growls. As the rhythm section lays on pressured accompaniment he then turns from hand-muted weaving to harsh, staccato lines.

Another stand out, “The Alternate Mosaics Part 2, Theme 2” not only gives space to double-gaited cascading piano chords, but also for stop-and-start tenor saxophone cadences from both reed men. As Collier’s thick bass plucks and Webb’s press rolls push them forward, both Wakeman and Sydor overblow, tongue-stop, chomp phrases, semi-quote and generally vibrate pitches everywhere. The final shout chorus, adding Beckett, is excitement in itself.

One saxophonist who demanded go-for-broke excitement almost constantly, and never seemed to be seduced by commercial considerations, was Osborne (1941-2007). Although sidelined with mental illness for about two decades before his death, prior to that, Osborne showed, in his work with the Brotherhood of Breath (BOB) and his own bands, that he was committed to the sort of improvisation that exhausted all possibilities. All Night Long, recorded with BOB cohorts, Harry Miller on bass and Louis Moholo on drums – both expatriate South Africans – confirms this. Although he favored the alto saxophone, Osborne was, in a way, the link between Tubby Hayes and Evan Parker.

As this 1975 CD demonstrates, those saxophonists are important touchstones. While Osborne was never really a bopper like Hayes, he still cleaved to the song form and studded his solo with fleeting quotes from other tunes, a long-time bop trope. Furthermore every tune on this CD has a real title, and the trio even briefly touches on “Round Midnight”. Conversely, while Osborne’s solos are rugged, seemingly never-ending and studded with rough asides, slip-sliding, roars and unexpected sound excursions, he never deconstructed timbres the way Parker, his sometime BOB section-made did. Whether he would have – like Bailey and a few others – have become more musically experimental as he aged, is of course, a moot question.

What is obvious is the strength of the performance here. Operating at 100 per cent from the first note, the trio mixes gritty, bass string plucks and pummeling arco lines on Miller’s part; cross-patterning drags, flams and rim shots, with add-on miscellaneous percussion excursions on Moholo’s; and resonating, repetitive bites, blows and blats on Osborne’s, to keep playing at top form.

Note how the three treat the almost 24-minute showcase that encompasses “Ken’s Tune/Country Bounce/ All Night Long/Trio Trio”. As Miller’s thick pulses spelunk down the bass strings and Moholo counters with a relentless exposure of rumbles, pops and cymbal echoes, Osborne inventively squeezes, trills and pushes new tones to the centre, only to discard them and start again. Forced and filled vibrating arpeggios and discursive patterns are advanced with flutter-tonguing, tongue-stopping and split tones, slip-sliding from one idea to the next, contrasting a bebop quote with a pseudo-Scottish burr and then moving on. Meantime Miller leaps from sul ponticello accompaniment to set up a groove congruent to the drummer’s cross pulsing and duple meters. As cadenzas of notes spew from his horn it appears as if Osborne will never stop playing no matter what.

Or consider the previously unreleased “Now and Then, Here and Now”. Beholden to the sound extensions brought to jazz by John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, Osborne’s solo still has a melodic base. With some lilting phrases played in the coloratura register and others roughened with a deeper tenor-sax-like pitch, he flies off into the stratosphere, but keeps recapping the original theme to maintain his moorings. Snatches of what could be “Slop” and “Mr. PC” appear fleetingly and then are subsumed into the molten idea flow, the bravura performance includes hocketing leaps from one idea and note cluster to the next. Especially illustrative is that the saxophonist is still soloing as the track fades. This is how Osborne should be remembered.

Born in 1937, Collier is thankfully still alive to be celebrated. And so he should be as with these CDs. Despite their related-to-the-period faults, both his and Osborne’s sets recall the creative ferment in United Kingdom jazz in the late 1960s, early 1970s and preserve hours of notable music that should be savored.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Deep: Deep Dark Blue Centre: 1. Blue Walls 2. El Miklos 3. Hirayoshi Suite 4. Conversations 5. Deep Dark Blue Centre Portraits: 7. And Now for Something Completely Different PT. 1 Disc 2 1. And Now for Something Completely Different PT 2. 2. Portraits 1 The Alternate Mosaics: 3. The Alternate Mosaics Part 1 Theme 1 4. The Alternate Mosaics Part 2 Theme 2 5. The Alternate Mosaics Part 3 Theme 6 6. The Alternate Mosaics Part 4 Theme 8

Personnel: Deep: Deep Dark Blue Centre: Harry Beckett or Kenny Wheeler (trumpet and flugelhorn); Mike Gibbs (trombone); Dave Aaron (alto saxophone and flute); Karl Jenkins (baritone saxophone and oboe); Philip Lee (guitar); Graham Collier (bass) and John Marshall (drums) Portraits: Dick Pearce (flugelhorn); Pete Hurt (alto saxophone); Ed Speight (guitar); Geoff Castle (piano); Collier and John Webb (drums) The Alternate Mosaics: Beckett; ); Bob Sydor (alto and tenor saxophones); Alan Wakeman (tenor and soprano saxophones); Castle; Collier and Webb

Track Listing: Night: 1. All night long/Rivers 2. Round Midnight 3. Scotch Pearl 4. Waltz 5. Ken’s Tune/Country Bounce/ All Night Long/Trio Trio 6. Scotch Pearl 7. Now and Then, Here and Now

Personnel: Night: Mike Osborne (alto saxophone); Harry Miller (bass) and

Louis Moholo (drums)

December 23, 2008